JDeezie82
Quarry Creeper
So the time has come to finally update the appearance of my Wraith. I bought the truck in early 2013, and although it's had some minor updates, it's still been running the same stock panels I painted up over 5 years ago. Granted they've held up pretty well, but it's time to give the ol' girl a facelift. Follow along kids and I'll give a brief history.
This is how the truck started out right after it was built. I repainted some old Tamiya CR-01 beadlocks that I had lying around since I hate gluing tires. The paint job was pretty simple. I just mixed two shades of orange for a marbled effect, with some black and silver.
After running the truck for a few months I did a battery forward mod, found a driver, made some scale 5 point harnesses, and added some scale goods to the rear.
Sent the truck in to RC Driver and managed to get a half page spread in the April 2014 issue.
Gave the truck some new LockedUpRC wheels and rings that I panted to match, did the fastback mod, and took it on a trip to Vegas/Utah/Arizona in March of 2014.
At the Grand Canyon. April 2014.
Picked up some second hand Swampers and ran those for a little bit.
Ran the truck for a while into 2015 before deciding to give it the 1.9 conversion. Here I was testing different tire/wheel combos. 2.2's with 1.9 Baja Claws up front, and some Axial 1.9 8 Hole wheels with Gearhead rings.
Got the wheelbase sorted on the 1.9 conversion, then the truck had to take a backseat for a little bit. Finished the conversion with some SSD Dana 60 axle housings.
Ran the truck in this setup for a while. Decided on the 2.2's with stretched and cut Baja Claws.
Then gave it a "I can see everything anytime" upgrade with a GearHeadRC waterproof light bar and some custom rock lights.
I took it to PA in 2016. This was at Rausch Creek Offroad Park.
Jumping Graffiti Road in Centralia, PA, 2016.
Picked up some second hand 1.9 PitBull Growlers in late 2016. Still running the 2.2's.
This was mid July of last year. Didn't run the truck much in 2017.
This was the last run of the truck before I started the plan for the facelift. This was in December of last year.
And now the actual build thread begins. Thanks for making it this far. Here's what I've done so far.
The first thing I did was repurpose some nearly 9 year old 1.9 Axial 8 Hole wheels with some LockedUpRC Agile rings and scale hardware. I drilled out the faux lugs that are molded into the 8 Hole's and used the acorn bolts in their place.
Then the body and paint showed up. Going with the Pro-Line 66 Bronco that's meant for the Deadbolt. Still haven't fully decided on a paint scheme, but I'm gonna keep it fairly simple with a two tone and some accents.
Got the wheels all finished up. There's a little touch up painting to do on them since the paint is old and I don't think I prepped them that well. I've got new Crawler Innovations Lil' Nova foams that should be here this weekend. Was only running a 2.2 CI inner with the 2.2's and stretched 1.9's.
I trimmed the fat off the front bumper, sanded it, and repainted it. I figured out a great way to bring the plastic back to pretty much it's stock color after sanding without really painting it. I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but I basically took a paper towel dipped in some Testors semi-gloss black and just rubbed it on the bumper in a couple light coats. It's more like staining the plastic I guess. Works great though. Much faster drying times than a traditional brush or spray.
The Pro-Line 5" light bar I snagged for free with a Wal-Mart gift card and some Savings Catcher bucks, showed up yesterday so I messed around with a couple different mounting options. It's much more scale than the GearHead one I've had for a while, but it's also not waterproof, yet, and I've been noticing some voltage drop with it, but it could be a battery issue.
Tonight when I got home I got rid of the old panels and started sanding the cage to smooth up the years of abuse, then gave it the semi-gloss stain treatment.
After that I cut the interior out of the Bronco body and trimmed it and the dash out. I'm hoping I can somehow make this dash work with the Wraith interior because it's a really nice mold and I'd hate to waste it.
This was as far as I got tonight. Still a bit of trimming left to do on the body before it will fit properly. Hoping to at least get it painted this weekend.
There's still a lot left to do on the build, but it's going pretty well so far. I still need to repaint the links because I never did when I made the uppers and lowers for the conversion, as well as where I robbed the axles from my SCX10 rebuild that stalled out. If it goes according to plan, this should be one nice looking budget friendly rig when I'm done.
Stay tuned kids. "thumbsup"
This is how the truck started out right after it was built. I repainted some old Tamiya CR-01 beadlocks that I had lying around since I hate gluing tires. The paint job was pretty simple. I just mixed two shades of orange for a marbled effect, with some black and silver.
After running the truck for a few months I did a battery forward mod, found a driver, made some scale 5 point harnesses, and added some scale goods to the rear.
Sent the truck in to RC Driver and managed to get a half page spread in the April 2014 issue.
Gave the truck some new LockedUpRC wheels and rings that I panted to match, did the fastback mod, and took it on a trip to Vegas/Utah/Arizona in March of 2014.
At the Grand Canyon. April 2014.
Picked up some second hand Swampers and ran those for a little bit.
Ran the truck for a while into 2015 before deciding to give it the 1.9 conversion. Here I was testing different tire/wheel combos. 2.2's with 1.9 Baja Claws up front, and some Axial 1.9 8 Hole wheels with Gearhead rings.
Got the wheelbase sorted on the 1.9 conversion, then the truck had to take a backseat for a little bit. Finished the conversion with some SSD Dana 60 axle housings.
Ran the truck in this setup for a while. Decided on the 2.2's with stretched and cut Baja Claws.
Then gave it a "I can see everything anytime" upgrade with a GearHeadRC waterproof light bar and some custom rock lights.
I took it to PA in 2016. This was at Rausch Creek Offroad Park.
Jumping Graffiti Road in Centralia, PA, 2016.
Picked up some second hand 1.9 PitBull Growlers in late 2016. Still running the 2.2's.
This was mid July of last year. Didn't run the truck much in 2017.
This was the last run of the truck before I started the plan for the facelift. This was in December of last year.
And now the actual build thread begins. Thanks for making it this far. Here's what I've done so far.
The first thing I did was repurpose some nearly 9 year old 1.9 Axial 8 Hole wheels with some LockedUpRC Agile rings and scale hardware. I drilled out the faux lugs that are molded into the 8 Hole's and used the acorn bolts in their place.
Then the body and paint showed up. Going with the Pro-Line 66 Bronco that's meant for the Deadbolt. Still haven't fully decided on a paint scheme, but I'm gonna keep it fairly simple with a two tone and some accents.
Got the wheels all finished up. There's a little touch up painting to do on them since the paint is old and I don't think I prepped them that well. I've got new Crawler Innovations Lil' Nova foams that should be here this weekend. Was only running a 2.2 CI inner with the 2.2's and stretched 1.9's.
I trimmed the fat off the front bumper, sanded it, and repainted it. I figured out a great way to bring the plastic back to pretty much it's stock color after sanding without really painting it. I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but I basically took a paper towel dipped in some Testors semi-gloss black and just rubbed it on the bumper in a couple light coats. It's more like staining the plastic I guess. Works great though. Much faster drying times than a traditional brush or spray.
The Pro-Line 5" light bar I snagged for free with a Wal-Mart gift card and some Savings Catcher bucks, showed up yesterday so I messed around with a couple different mounting options. It's much more scale than the GearHead one I've had for a while, but it's also not waterproof, yet, and I've been noticing some voltage drop with it, but it could be a battery issue.
Tonight when I got home I got rid of the old panels and started sanding the cage to smooth up the years of abuse, then gave it the semi-gloss stain treatment.
After that I cut the interior out of the Bronco body and trimmed it and the dash out. I'm hoping I can somehow make this dash work with the Wraith interior because it's a really nice mold and I'd hate to waste it.
This was as far as I got tonight. Still a bit of trimming left to do on the body before it will fit properly. Hoping to at least get it painted this weekend.
There's still a lot left to do on the build, but it's going pretty well so far. I still need to repaint the links because I never did when I made the uppers and lowers for the conversion, as well as where I robbed the axles from my SCX10 rebuild that stalled out. If it goes according to plan, this should be one nice looking budget friendly rig when I'm done.
Stay tuned kids. "thumbsup"
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